LIFT Your Story is a series of interactive workshops designed to help startup founders build & elevate their companies using best practices & proven storytelling techniques from leaders in media & technology.

Over the course of seven workshops in New York City & Philadelphia, founders will hear from industry experts on creating a business plan, turning that plan into a business, pitching & selling, building a team, product design & fundraising.

LIFT Your Story is partnership between Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs & the Made in NY Media Center by IFP. Workshops are free to attend, though prior registration is necessary.

Topic Focus: Funding

In this workshop, you'll learn how to frame your story to appeal to funders & collaborators. This session will focus on nontraditional funding sources; specifically small business innovation research (SBIR) grants. These fund research or research & development that has the potential for commercialization through grants ranging from $200,000 for 6 months to $1.7 million for 2.5 years. You will learn the application process, brainstorm potential collaborators, & practice telling your story to develop a paragraph to use when reaching out to a program director.

Jessica Ochoa Hendrix, CEO & Co-Founder of Killer Snails, has worked in K-12 education since 2003. With funding from the National Science Foundation & the Institute of Educational Sciences, Killer Snails has launched seven products to date. Prior to co-founding Killer Snails, she worked as an educational consultant whose clients included Relay Graduate School of Education & the Charter Network Accelerator. Previously, she worked for Uncommon Schools as the Director of Organizational Learning.? Ochoa Hendrix received her MBA from Columbia Business School & was awarded the Board of Overseers Fellowship, & the Nathan Gantcher Prize for Social Enterprise. Prior to business school, she worked in marketing for the Harvard Business Review & The Economist, & taught for four years for The Princeton Review.